ICIMOD is leading the LAKI process, a collaborative initiative between the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate change (UNFCCC) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment), in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH).

In May 2017, ICIMOD organized a LAKI side event during the Bonn Climate Change Conference at the World Conference Centre in Bonn, Germany. The event brought together country delegates, representatives of regional centers and networks, the academia, research institutions, UN agencies, multilateral and bilateral donors, and knowledge brokers. The objective was to facilitate a dialogue on the modalities, challenges, and opportunities related to closing adaptation knowledge gaps in different regions of the world. The event also featured a call for expressions of interest to close priority knowledge gaps identified through the LAKI for the HKH subregion and support the implementation of the LAKI in new subregions.

At the event, participants highlighted the relevance of the LAKI outcomes in producing knowledge that would be understandable to policy makers and communities. Multi-stakeholder participation was found to be critical to ensure access of knowledge to users and to secure access to financial resources in undertaking actions to close priority knowledge gaps (http://www4.unfccc.int/sites/NWP/News/Pages/Outcomes-of-LAKI-side-event.aspx).

Another LAKI event was held in December 2017 as part of the International Conference on Resilient Hindu Kush Himalaya, which took place at the ICIMOD headquarters in Kathmandu Nepal from 3–6 December. The joint satellite event was organized by ICIMOD, the UNFCCC secretariat, and UN Environment on “Repackaging Research for Use in the Hindu Kush Himalaya”. The event tried to bridge the gaps in available adaptation knowledge to close existing priority knowledge gaps.

Eight technologies—community based flood early warning systems, water-less closed system toilets, flood resilient housing, solar pumps, managing springs, climate resilient agricultural packages for smallholder farmers, agriculture and drought advisories, and regional flood information systems—were discussed during the event. Each group focused on proposals or actions to close one or more priority LAKI knowledge gaps related to their thematic discussion area. It was decided that action pledges will be submitted jointly by ICIMOD and its partners to the Nairobi Work Programme for linking their work with the UNFCCC process at the global level http://www4.unfccc.int/sites/NWP/News/Pages/Repackaging-Research-for-Use-in-the-Hindu-Kush-Himalaya.aspx.

The LAKI process in the HKH is supported by ICIMOD’s Support to Rural Livelihoods and Climate Change Adaptation in the Himalaya (Himalica) initiative. In addition, the action pledge is a joint effort of several ICIMOD initiatives and their partners—Himalica; Himalayan Adaptation, Water and Resilience (HI-AWARE); SERVIR Hindu Kush Himalaya (SERVIR-HKH); Himalayan Climate Change Adaptation Programme (HICAP), Regional Flood Information System in the Hindu Kush Himalayan Region (HKH-HYCOS); Water Land and Ecosystems (WLE); Koshi Basin; Indus Basin Initiative; and Water Resources Management in Afghanistan.

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